Before Everybody Loved Raymond

How a bunch of wacky relatives became America's funniest family.

• TV Personalities
• Comedians

Being Real

Amazing as it sounds, Ray Romano hadn't ever acted before Everybody Loves Raymond. He'd been a stand-up comic for years, and he's a naturally gifted actor, with the ability to project his true nature -- a warm, affable, "regular" guy -- with great humor. But because he cared so much about being believable, he did not want to do anything in our first year of the show, 1996, that he did not do in real life. Like drink coffee.

As the creator and executive producer of the show, I suggested to him that, this being television, we could put anything he wanted in the cup. Ray wouldn't do it. "They won't believe it," he said. So it was a process of taking risks and pushing outside his comfort zone those first few months.

The real challenge came in an episode called "The Ball." The climactic scene called for Ray to discover why his father forged Mickey Mantle's signature on a baseball for him when he was a kid. It turned out that his father, Frank -- played by the great actor Peter Boyle -- waited outside the stadium for days, and Mantle wouldn't see him.

Frank didn't want to disappoint Raymond, so he practiced Mantle's signature and gave his son the ball. When Ray finally hears his father explain it all these years later, he's so touched that the script calls for him to cross to his dad, who's sitting at the kitchen table, and kiss him on the head.

"No way would that ever happen," said Ray, stopping rehearsal.

I didn't understand. But Ray insisted he would never, ever kiss his father.

"Okay, but could you see that a son could kiss his dad?" I asked.

"It would never happen." And he started getting upset in front of everyone at the rehearsal.

I took him aside and told him he certainly didn't have to do the kiss. Never mind. Forget about it. "But," I said to Ray, "come shoot night, if you get to that moment and you feel it ... do it."

So it's a few nights later, and we're shooting the show. And here comes that scene. It's going well, and we get to that moment. And Ray crosses to his father and -- kisses him on the head. With feeling. What a guy.

I'm telling you, yes, it's just a television sitcom. But there was not a dry eye in the house. It was because it came from a guy you'd never expect would do something like that.

Our first season of Everybody Loves Raymond had lots of wonderful moments -- moments of discovery for all of us and the realization that maybe we were onto something special. But first let me tell you how we got there.

So my wife, Monica, and I are in bed one night in May 1995, and we're watching David Letterman. And here comes a comedian. We always root for the comedian, because we enjoy the comedy and know the pressure the comedian must be under.

To even get a shot on Letterman's show is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, like Johnny Carson's show before him.

It's this comedian's first time on Letterman. And he's funny. He's doing well. He talks about his twin baby boys and how he hasn't written any new material since they were born, except ... "Well, here's the one new joke I've written," he says. "Tell me if you like this." He pulls out a ring of keys and shakes it out in front of him. "Here you go. Look! Look!"

We crack up.

"I'm glad you liked that," he says to the audience. "Otherwise I'd have to come down and rub my nose in your bellies."

We like the guy. We go to sleep. And naturally, we forget about him.

Three months pass. I've been working on the show Coach as a supervising producer, which means writer, which means I have an increasing say in what we'll order for lunch. This alone is reason to work in television -- Chinese, deli, Greek, sushi, Indian, anything you want, from anyplace in town. It's a fantastic perk. So fantastic, I gained 30 pounds in five years.

But I was 35 by then and wondering if maybe there wasn't something better for me. Monica and I had a baby boy named Ben. Sweetest boy in the world. And we played with our boy, and lived in a house in Los Feliz with a pine tree, and I kept writing for Coach, and I was wondering, What else is there?

Then a videotape shows up at the house. And it's this comedian's appearance on Letterman, the same guy we saw that night.

It turns out that he'd been a stand-up comic for 11 years before his shot on Letterman, and from that one six-minute appearance, Letterman said, "There should be a show for this guy." So they started sending the tape around looking for writers who might want to create a show for Ray Romano.

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My father, a retired Air Force pilot, often sprinkles his conversation with aviation jargon. I didn't realize what flying had meant to him, however, until the day he showed me the folder with his last will and testament. It was labeled "Cleared for departure."

-- Cheryl E. Drake